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That possibility came from Silva’s manager Ed Soares, who admitted even while saying it that he didn’t know whether it was a fight that would interest the UFC.

The mention flattered Le, who has been idle since his Nov. 10 knockout win against Rich Franklin. The 40-year-old, who has one foot planted in the fight world and the other in Hollywood, is in a position where he can pick the path of his future, and he admitted that a fight with Silva is something that would interest him.

“If the UFC wants me to fight after our discussion, I’m totally open for it,” he said on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour.

While it's a good move on Le's part to step up to the plate and strike while the iron his hot, I don't think anyone seriously wants to see this fight other than Le, Silva and Soares. Silva would destroy Le inside of four minutes, and that's giving Le the benefit of the doubt.

Dana White said that Silva and Soares throwing around names of potential opponents is commonplace, and it's true. We've seen it before. And I don't know if the non-interest in Weidman is because of the threat he poses or his lack of name value. What I do know is that there are better choices out there for a title defense than Le.

The preliminary ratings for UFC on Fox 6 have been returned, and according to a report from TVByTheNumbers.com, the show headlined by flyweights Demetrious Johnson and John Dodson actually pulled in the third highest viewership yet for a UFC on Fox card.

Nearly 3.78 million viewers (3.7766 to be exact) on average watched the two-hour long broadcast that featured Johnson vs. Dodson in the main event, as well as the farewell fight for Quinton “Rampage” Jackson as he lost to Glover Teixeira in what should likely be his last trip to the Octagon.

The ratings signify a 13-percent increase from the numbers returned for the UFC on Fox 5 card in December.

Now that the UFC has dedicated themselves to putting together fun and exciting cards with some value for the FOX shows, the ratings are starting to steadily improve.

I'm a big fan of putting title fights on network TV. Even though you likely won't see GSP and Anderson Silva on FOX anytime soon, the non-marquee divisions will slowly gain respect and star power through all of the eyeballs they are catching.

“We were in deep talks with him,” White said following the post-fight news conference for UFC on FOX 6 in Chicago. “We were that close to signing him recently. Right before his dad died. We were right there. When I was talking about doing the big Dallas Texas stadium show? It was going to be Brock Lesnar vs. (Fedor).

“Remember when I met with him and said it didn’t go well? It actually went well. It went well, and Brock wanted to fight Fedor. Then (Fedor’s) dad died, and he was done.”

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“He said, ‘I want to spend the rest of my life with my family,’” White said. “(UFC CEO) Lorenzo (Fertitta met with him). We were negotiating for months. After his dad died and he said he was done or whatever, Brock said, ‘I’m done, too.”’

And here we all thought that a trip to Cowboys Stadium would only have involved Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva.

“I don’t know what it is now, but I’ve been doing it so long that I’m very intuitive in my work, and as soon as I saw her, I could have her make 135 pounds in [two days],” he said. “I guarantee it. ... And she’d be in world-class shape.”

Santos, who said she walks around north of 170 pounds, spoke to Dolce about her lifestyle, including training and her diet. From that conversation, Dolce said he was able to identify ways for her to successfully make such a drastic weight cut, even in such a short timeframe.

“Now, I don’t suggest that,” he said. “I suggest we have a great 12- or 16-week training camp. The more, the better because she’ll be healthier, and she’ll be better able. But this is what I do. ... I’m not bragging. It’s just what it is. I know how to do it healthy.”

I don't doubt Dolce's talents. His work speaks for itself. However, I have a hard time believing that assisting Cyborg in dropping from 170 lbs to 135 lbs will be easy, let alone in the span of a couple of days.

The evidence continues to mount regarding Cyborg's potential to make it down to bantamweight. Hopefully Tito Ortiz decides to do the right thing and get his client in touch with Dolce for a shot at a big-time payday against Ronda Rousey.

But in his decision, Linares wrote that Alvarez failed to satisfy the burden of showing a reasonable probability of success and irreparable harm.

“It is speculative to suggest, as Alvarez does, that an inability to compete in the April 27 event will result in irreparable harm in the form of a lost opportunity to obtain notoriety, endorsements, and a wider exposure to viewers,” he wrote.

Linares did note that Alvarez had at least one potential battleground issue in his ongoing litigation, acknowledging that the difference between broadcast network FOX and cable channel Spike could lead a court or jury to find that the Bellator has not matched Zuffa’s contract.

It's a shame that Alvarez will continue to be stuck in limbo for the time being. Just because he was denied an injunction, doesn't mean that the legal battle is over. The case could still go to trial, and Alvarez now has the words of a judge that the difference between FOX and Spike has the potential to be recognized as vast.

The one thing that concerns me is the relationship status between Alvarez and Bellator if he has to end up staying in the organization. What an awkward situation to be in.

I understand why Bellator is refusing to back down. They want to have the precedent set in stone in case another situation like this arises in the future. But after all of the negative publicity and accusations thrown back and forth, it might make more sense just to let Eddie walk at this point. Like Dana said, he isn't even their champion.

The first Bellator MMA broadcast on Spike set a TV ratings record for the promotion, notching in at an average of 938,000 viewers for Bellator 85.

Thursday’s Bellator 86 didn’t do quite as well, but it didn’t take a hard fall either.

Bellator 86 averaged 812,000 viewers, according to MMAWeekly.com industry sources. That number is still four to five times higher than most of the Bellator events drew during its stint on MTV2.

Bellator has accounted for a more than 75-percent improvement in several of the key advertising demographics for Spike TV compared to the prior four weeks of programming.

Let's be clear here - the slight dip in the ratings is just that, slight. It's to be expected as things level out, but if these numbers are any indication of what we can expect during the Spike-Bellator relationship, Bjorn Rebney and company are in for a pleasant surprise as well as a foothold as a strong alternative to the UFC.

The promotion for Bellator has been impressive, at least on Spike's end. Just as it was while the UFC was a partner, Bellator commercials and screen spots are all over the place. It's also telling when I can walk into the bathroom of a random bar in Philadelphia, and find a pack of Bellator posters and coasters for taking.

Jackson talks often about no longer being happy in UFC and looks forward to leaving the promotion after Saturday night’s bout against Teixeira. But Jackson won’t be all smiles when it’s over.

“I will miss a lot of things. I will miss Burt Watson backstage. He’s funny; he’s cool to hang around,” Jackson told ESPN.com. “Honestly, if you are on Dana’s good side, he’s one of the coolest guys. Lorenzo Fertitta’s always been cool with me; and Frank [Fertitta]. I will miss the good fans. When you’re walking back to the locker room, when you win, the fans are cheering you on. There are a lot of things about the UFC that I will miss.”

Alvarez is in the middle of a legal tug-of-war between UFC and his former promoter, Bellator. The fighter wants to compete in UFC; Bellator, however, isn’t ready to relinquish his services.

But on Friday, Alvarez’s future could become a little clearer. His attorneys and those representing Bellator will appear before United States District Court judge Jose L. Linares at the Martin Luther King Federal Building in Newark, N.J., to argue whether Alvarez can compete at an upcoming UFC event in April.

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“I’ll be very relieved [when the Friday hearing concludes],” Alvarez told ESPN.com. “Hopefully, they will come to a judgment this Friday. But I’m not setting my expectations too high; I’ll just be setting myself up for disappointment.

“I just want to take things as they go; I’m not trying to control things that are not in my control. If we manage to get this thing settled this weekend I will be very happy. If not, then me, my management team [Authentic Sports Management] and the attorneys who are working this on my behalf are patient; we’ll wait and get the result that we want.”

If the judge sides in Alvarez's favor and he is free to go to the UFC, it is widely expected that Alvarez will fight in the co-main event at UFC 159 on April 27 in New Jersey, potentially against either Gray Maynard or Jim Miller in a title eliminator.

It could honestly go either way, and it really all comes down to how Judge Linares is going to interpret the PPV portion of the offer. The UFC is obviously a mainstay and Bellator claims that they will go that route if they do retain Alvarez's services, but they have never have to date. Will their promise be enough to hold up in court?

It was a really cool, fun time training every day, boxing. So one day we’re at set and Robert De Niro comes in. De Niro is there because Angelo Dundee, they flew Dundee in. We’re in a room way smaller than this. Tiny little room, right? And Angelo Dundee is talking and Robert De Niro is filming him with a camcorder because he wants to get all of his mannerisms and see the way he talks and everything else.

So you’re De Niro and I’m me. We’re all standing up. So they get done with this whole thing with Dundee and we leave. I think we went and ate or something. Me and Mark went and ate and came back and Mark grabs me and pulls me aside and says, ‘Dana, you got to stop staring at Bobby. You’re freaking him out.’

I’m like, ‘Mark it’s f—-ing Robert De Niro, man. I’m in a room with DiNiro and I guess I was staring at him the whole time.’ He’s like, I’m telling you man, if you don’t stop staring at him you’re not going to be able to go back in the room. You’re totally freaking him out. So I said, ‘Okay, I’ll stop staring at De Niro.’

Be sure to click on the link above and read the rest of the interview Wertheim did with Dana. Probably one of the better ones that I've read in a while.

UFC Executive Lawrence Epstein explained the new code of conduct at the beginning of today’s UFC on FOX 6 pre-fight press conference:

“It’s really two announcements….(Hughes’ new job) and the second thing is the implementation of a written code of conduct for UFC athletes. As you think about these two announcements, you have to think about them as one. There’s gonna be a huge connection with what Matt does and our new code of conduct. One comment on the code of conduct just to take care of that, it really isn’t something that’s new, just something that frankly for the first time has been put in writing. We’ve always felt that our athletes need to live up to a high level of conduct and make sure everything they’re doing obviously both inside the Octagon and outside is in compliance with the high standards of the UFC.”

Something like this has been a long time coming for the UFC. From Miguel Torres' controversial tweets, to Rampage Jackson's police chase to the backlash over Ronda Rousey's recent tweet of a Sandy Hook shooting conspiracy video, the UFC has been dealing with issues for a while without any sort of set standard or system to measure insistences by.

Now they do, and it brings them up to par wih the four major professional sports leagues in that regard. It'll help that FOX is likely pleased as well.